Satoru Iwata: Hubris versus Western Culture

Every generation, Satoru Iwata tells investors, gamers, and retailers that they will avoid major software droughts because these can kill a platform’s momentum after launch. Satoru Iwata never learns from anything. He always says he has learned from past mistakes, but his actions never show it. Instead, every single generation, all we get from him is a whole bunch of “Please understand” and “I apologize for the inconvenience”.

Article says: "Satoru Iwata never learns from anything. He always says he has learned from past mistakes, but his actions never show it. Instead, every single generation, all we get from him is a whole bunch of “Please understand” and “I apologize for the inconvenience”."

I say: Time for Iwata to resign and set Nintendo free. He got lucky off of the wii and now his time is up. They need to put the manager of the portables division in charge of Wii U, because the Ds/3DS are ON FIRE!

No, Iwata is only part of the problem. A lot of the old dogs at Nintendo need to go (or at least, "retire"). I will probably be burned alive for sacrilege, but it's true. Sakamoto refused to give us real Metroid games and instead insisted on making Metroid: Other M. Aonuma has taken the Zelda series away from its roots (he has publicly said that he hates the first three Zelda games because they have too much action) and has given us Puzzelda instead. Worst of all, Miyamoto is just as responsible as Iwata. Miyamoto was the one who insisted on the bomb, Wii Music. He designed Nintendo Land. He was the one who insisted on focusing on 3D with the 3DS (and he "retired" when it didn't work out as planned). Miyamoto hates working on 2D Mario games and is also responsible for the "same"ness of the last several 2D Mario games, because he refuses to put any money or resources into those games, even though they sell the most (he gives the orchestrated soundtracks and sprawling, brand-new worlds to his 3D Mario games). Miyamoto was the one who let Gunpei Yokoi (arguably, someone just as important to Nintendo) take the fall for the Virtual Boy and then a decade later Miyamoto starts taking all the credit for the Virtual Boy's ideas once the 3DS first was announced.

Again, a lot of Ninty fanboys might be grabbing their pitchforks right now, but it's the truth. I've watched Nintendo's business habits since the late SNES era.

You're aware the DS/wDS are a part of Iwata's resume, right? Iwata is part of the reason the Wii did not wind up exactly like the N64 and the GCN. More so, Iwata has aided in the development of many highly acclaimed Nintendo software.

By demanding his resignation, you're asking Nintendo to practically shoot itself in the foot.

I think they should have released Wii2 with visuals on par with ps360, they wouldnt match next gen bo so what? That didnt stop them from Wii success. Either aim for true next gen or not. Scrap stupid game tablet idea, release Wiimote2 as precise as Move.

Core gamer is lost, they're not getting back those COD, GTA, Fifa gamers and Nintendo faithful are not enough to be equal force to MS/Sony in home console market.

I have Wii and bought all mayor Nintendo 1st paty games, was I annoyed that they sold tons upon tons of WiiSports/Fit/whatever? No, I was glad they expanded they number of poeple that play tv video games, casuals or not, that was a good thing.

Dude this goes way beyond just the Wii U's launch. Read the article. It is an excellent collection of massive screw ups, broken promises, short-sightedness, ignorance, and arrogance that comes from Iwata.

I think Iwata fails to recognize what made Nintendo great. The idea behind the Wii was based on their intuition, but with the Wii U their premise was "We NEED to innovate again" which i think seemed like a rushed way to make a new console. I think Iwata has been focusing on the wrong things in the past couple of years. You can also see it having an impact on the way Nintendo of America presents new things at conferences and so on. They don't have anything interesting, because it mostly has to go through Nintendo of Japan first. Last years E3 was so underwhelming, and even Reggie's performance sucked. That guy probably knew they were in deep shit at the time.

Do tell what made Nintendo great? Remember the former President of Nintendo who couldn't give a damn about online offerings? Nintendo is a stuck up company. And I really don't see how Iwata is doing worse than the the previous president.

Times are different. Business models and markets change drastically too. WiiU is not rushed. It's simply Nintendo not addressing their marketing problems.

"We NEED to innovate again" That's what they always claim. So according to you all Nintendo consoles are rushed.

I just think the Wii was a natural next step for innovation because we've all dreamt about playing games with VR tech, and we wanted to feel like we were actually in the game, and that was how they came up with the idea for the Wii Remote, wheras the idea for the Wii U tablet seems like ripoff of their DS.

I don't dislike the Wii U concept, but i don't consider it to be interesting enough for me to to buy a console for it.

i do not think it was rushed its nintendo what do want thats how they are been like this for 5 years i like the wii u but people need think out of the box for games means third party to support the wii u bring lost planet 3 to the wii u its not that hard to do

The only way I can stomach Miyamoto retiring is if Sakurai takes his place. As for Iwata, I think he definitely needs to make some adjustments, but we'll see how much everyone hates him a year from now.